[h]→[ɛ]Certainty: 5/5Commonality: 3/5

Vocalization Vowel Coloring Psilosis Hellenic Semitic

Voiceless glottal fricative to Open-mid front unrounded vowel

The shift from the glottal fricative [h] to the open-mid front vowel [ɛ] is a historic vocalization, most famously seen in the evolution of the Greek letter Eta from the consonantal Heta.

Phonetic Effects

Vocalization, Vowel Coloring, Psilosis

Language Examples

Ancient Greek (Ionic) Hellenic

[h] (Heta)→[ɛː] (Eta)— Repurposing of the glottal consonant symbol for a long open-mid vowel after the loss of the [h] sound.

Hebrew Semitic

[h]→[ɛ]— Guttural interaction in segholate nouns resulting in epenthetic [ɛ].

Related Transformations

Reverse Close-mid variant

More Semitic Shifts

[ã] → [õ] — Raising [ʕ] → [a] — Vocalization [ʕ] → [ʔ] — De-pharyngealization [b] → [v] — Spirantization [d] → [ð] — Spirantization

Sources & References

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